Kenneth Lowe had worked at Walbro for over 40 years. In 2018, at age 60, he was fired. According to the company, his position as Area Manager was no longer needed. According to Lowe, it was age discrimination.
He sued, claiming his supervisor had made several age-related comments, including the one above, which was said during a ceremony celebrating Lowe's 40th work anniversary. Lowe said his boss also made other comments like "let the old guy do it," and "are you losing a step?"
At trial, the jury bought it. They gave Lowe over $2.3 million in damages. But the judge threw out the verdict and entered judgment for the company instead. The 6th Circuit just affirmed.
How did the company win this case? While Lowe testified about age-related remarks, they were stray, remote in time, and unconnected to the decision to terminate him. His position wasn't refilled. And the company had recently hired other managers in their 50s. The only direct evidence that his supervisor mentioned age during the termination meeting came from an expert's hearsay report, which was inadmissible.
To be clear, this kind of age-based comments are wrong. They're inappropriate, they create a toxic workplace, and they expose companies to real legal risk. Employees who make them should be disciplined and retrained on discrimination and harassment. But just because a comment is offensive or careless doesn't automatically make it legally actionable. There has to be a causal link between the comment and the employment decision. Here, there wasn't.
Not every age-related comment proves discrimination. Stray remarks, especially when they're offhand, old, and unrelated to the decision-making process, won't get an employee across the legal finish line. The law requires causation, not just commentary.